Dermabrasion is a treatment for removing dead cells from the outermost layer of skin and cleaning blocked pores. Derambrasion treatment has been widely used for therapeutic and cosmetic purposes. Conventionally dermabrasion was conducted using cleansing cream or make-up remover containing abrasive component.
Recently a technique of abrading the skin surface by rubbing a device having an abrasive surface against skin while sucking up the dislodged skin cells. This type of dermabrasion device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,241,739 and 6,500,138 issued to Waldron. FIG. 1 shows the overall structure of the deramabrasion device taught by Waldron. The system includes a vacuum pump 24, and a gauge 14 to measure the level of vacuum and a valve 16 to adjust the vacuum are connected to the vacuum pump 24. A filter assembly 18 is connected to the vacuum pump 24 through a vacuum line 36. Attached to the filter assembly 18 is a hollow tube 26 or a wand assembly upon which the treatment tip 22 is mounted. The filter assembly 18 collects the loosened skin tissue and prevents the skin tissue or collected housing fluids and oils from entering the vacuum pump. When a vacuum is applied through the tube 26 to the treatment tip 22, the tip 22 is brought into contact with skin, the vacuum causing the skin to be pressed against an abrasive surface on the end of the treatment tip. As the tip is manually moved across skin the abrasive surface abrades the epidermis dislodging cells from the surface. The vacuum causes the dislodged cells to flow into the wand assembly 26.
FIG. 2 illustrates a typical structure of a treatment tip being used in the dermabrasion device as shown in FIG. 1. The treatment tip 22 has a tubular shape and preferably made of metallic material such as stainless steel. A connector tube 32 is inserted into one end of the treatment tip 22. The connector tube 32 is used to connect the treatment tip to the tube 26 which is in turn connected to the filter assembly 18. The other end of the treatment tube is formed with an abrasive surface 48. The abrasive surface may be formed by using various methods as follows: (1) coating diamond particles with nickel bonding; (2) coating abrasive material such as aluminum oxide; and (3) surface machining.
The dermabrasion device as describe above has several problems. First, the abrasive surface is integrally formed on the treatment tip. Since the tip is reused for many treatments without replacement, dislodged skin cells may remain adhering to the abrasive surface even after cleaning the treatment tip. This may cause harmful hygienic effects such as infection of skin disease. Second, the skin cells dislodged from patient's skin is absorbed into the hole formed at the center of the treatment tip. The skin cells dislodged by the periphery of the abrasive surface may not be effectively absorbed into the hole since the vacuum pressure applied to the center hole of the treatment tip tend to be significantly reduced when reaching the periphery of the treatment tip.